A View From the Top of The Mount

In our earlier post, we mentioned that the climb up Mout Sinai deserved its own post. Well, here it is.

Dahab is only about a two hour bus ride away from Mount Sinai. Yes, it is the same Mount Sinai where Moses received the Ten Commandments for us to obey! Though we didn't experience anything quite so divine on our trek, it was still an interesting experience.

In climbing Sinai, we had two options, climb and get to the top in time for sunrise, or in time for sunset. We chose the former, which meant that our bus was going to pick us up in front of BishBishi at 11:00 PM. We got to Mt. Sinai a little after 1:00 AM, and got to climbing around 1:30. That's right, we spent all night climbing a mountain. And what a mountain it was...especially in pitch darkness. Sure, we had purchased a flashlight before we left for the trip, but it was purchased at the dollar store and worth less than we paid for it. It broke while Sumon was putting in the batteries. In any case, no flashlight for a treacherous overnight climb.

We were put in a group with about 14 other climbers, and paired up with a Bedouin guide named Mohammed, who dubbed us the "Habibi" group ("habibi" apparently means friend). If our group got separated, we would all call out "Habibi!" until we were all back together again. This didn't work out too well, since there were countless other groups who were all called Habibi! Needless to say, we did get separated from our group, but we decided to just keep trekking up the mountain without them (after all, the top of a mountain really isn't that hard to find). The entire hike up was comprised entirely of rocky terrain. The many camels running up and down the mountain didn't help matters much. We had the option of buying a camel for the hike either up or down (or both), but we knew it was much too expensive, and the camels didn't look too happy. Besides, if anything were to happen, it's a long way to fall down. So we hoofed it ourselves, both ways. Granted, Snow walked into a sitting camel, and a mobile camel walked into Sumon, but after four or five hours of hiking, we had reached the top (it was particularly trying for Snow, who is traveling with a broken toe on her left foot).

Once we had reached the top, we parked ourselves in an excellent spot for the sunrise view. We were exhausted, cold, and hungry, but watching the sun rise from the summit of Mount Sinai was worth it. The view was stunning. We couldn't say we've ever had a front row seat to watch the sun rise before, but we're definitely proud of the fact that we can say it now. What made the experience that much more lyrical was the group of elderly Asian climbers who spontaneously broke into a rendition of Amazing Grace in their native language just as the sun was peeking out beyond the clouds. Amazing indeed.

The way back down was a bit easier, though the terrain didn't get any less rocky, nor were the camels any less obtrusive. We passed by many hikers who hadn't made it the entire way up. It also was a lot hotter once the sun was up. Snow, who had donned almost ALL the clothing she had brought for the entire trip on the way up had to back most of them back into Sumon's day pack for the way back down. Also on the way down we had encountered many young children trying to sell us all kinds of Sinai-related souvenirs. What struck us as the most remarkable thing about them is that they could speak several different languages, and beyond that could identify what language to speak to someone just by looking at them!

We finally reached the bottom of Sinai, about eight hours after we had started from there. At the bottom in St. Katherine's Monastery, where so many people come to so as to be blessed. We walked around there for a while before we reunited with the rest of our Habibi group! We all sat outside a cafe and related stories of our trek up the mountain, as well as our travels in general. Amongst the other members of the group were a couple from Australia, as well as two young women from Oregon, who were also traveling around the world.

In all, Mount Sinai was one of the most humbling experiences of both of our lives. We really feel like we accomplished something fantastic here.



On the bus to Mount Sinai










HABIBI! Here's our guide, Mohammed. This may have been the last time we ever saw him.



Snow all bundled up in ALL her clothes.




10 seconds after this picture was taken, this camel was walked into by Snow




CAMELS! GET YER CAMELS HERE!




Snow triumphant. Hey, there's still plenty more mountain to go!


And now, the sunrise. It really is as beautiful as it looks.